COMMENT Abhijeet Dey, Senior Fund Manager – Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund In the absence of any strong cues, stock markets in India traded on a lacklustre note today. Risk appetite in the global markets abated after US President Donald Trump gave a fillip to trade tensions by imposing a 25% tariff on a list of 818 items of Chinese goods worth around $34 billion. Beijing immediately responded with its own set of tariffs on US goods, making this a game of one up-manship. Benchmark indices traded weak to finally close the day marginally in the red. Sectoral performance on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was mixed. While the auto, healthcare and private banking indices eked out marginal gains, the metals and IT indices lost 1.78% and 0.77%, respectively Nifty Metal index falls nearly 2%: Top losers in the pack COMPANY LATEST PREV CLOSE LOSS() LOSS(%) VOLUME WELSPUN CORP 130.65 134.85 -4.20 -3.11 298307 VEDANTA 232.05 238.60 -6.55 -2.75 15086578 HINDALCO INDS. 231.00 237.40 -6.40 -2.70 6473259 JINDAL STEEL 229.05 234.00 -4.95 -2.12 6104157 HIND.ZINC 298.20 304.30 -6.10 -2.00 2462078 Sectoral Trend Top Sensex gainers and losers Markets at close The S&P BSE Sensex ended the day at 35,548, down 74 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 10,799 down 18 points Bata India nears record high; stock up 5% Shares of Bata India have rallied 5% to Rs 817, hitting seven month high on the BSE, on back of heavy volumes. The stock of footwear firm trading close to its record high of Rs 833 touched on November 1, 2017 in intra-day trade. Driven by various initiatives, Bata India reported a healthy performance in FY18. Revenues grew 7% year on year (YoY) to Rs 26.29 billion (adjusting for the GST impact, growth would be around 12%) in FY18. Furthermore, controlled fixed overheads led to EBITDA margin expansion to the tune of 220 bps YoY to 13.5%. READ MORE
The Nifty Metal index, however, lost nearly 2 per cent in intra-day trade amid rising global trade war fears.
US President Donald Trump on Friday said he was pushing ahead with hefty tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports, and the smouldering trade war between the world's two largest economies showed signs of igniting as Beijing immediately vowed to respond in kind.
Back home, foreign investors have pulled out more than Rs 55 bn from capital markets this month so far due to global trade war worries coupled with hawkish commentary by the US Federal Reserve. This comes following a net outflow of over Rs 450 bn from capital markets (equity and debt) in the last two months. Prior to that, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) had pumped in Rs 26 bn in March.
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